Democratic lawmakers started preparing for cyberattacks immediately following the 2016 election, warning that Russia would return, but the sense of urgency has grown in the past week as two senators confirmed hacking attempts.
Senate Democrats up for re-election in red states are the presumed top 2018 targets for Russia, which interfered in the 2016 election to boost then-candidate Donald Trump’s campaign. But Democrats running in pivotal House races are concerned they could be next, saying the attempted attack on Sen. Claire McCakill’s campaign is a fresh reminder.
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The Missouri Democrat confirmed last week that Russian intelligence unsuccessfully targeted her campaign. Last year, McCaskill told the Washington Examiner that she was not going to be caught off guard, “taking all precautions that you would take under the circumstance.”
After the Daily Beast reported Russian hackers attempt to infiltrate the email accounts of McCaskill staffers, McCaskill issued a statement, saying she would “not be intimidated.” Around the time of the attack last year, Trump visited Missouri and urged voters to kick McCaskill out of office.
On Sunday, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., told CBS’s “Face the Nation” that her office also was the subject of at least one phishing attack.
Sen. Bob Casey, who like McCaskill is up for re-election in a state Trump won, told the Washington Examiner in November that he was taking extra measures to protect against possible attacks.
“One thing I did in addition to getting a really good campaign manager, we hired a digital director for this purpose,” the Pennsylvania Democrat said. “It’s essential to have someone on the team who can identify an agent who can attack you in that manner. I have to assume that the Russians are actively interfering.”
One Senate Democratic office told the Examiner that if any hacks are attempted they’d get “red alerts” from the Senate sergeant-at-arms notifying them that someone on the outside tried to access their accounts.
“They’d even go as far as to lock accounts without asking,” according to the Senate Democratic office. “Also, all of our machines have security scans on a weekly basis.”
But it’s not just Senate Democrats bracing against a hack, House candidates in high-profile races are taking measures to prepare themselves as well. Many Democratic incumbents and first-time candidates are using encrypted texting services from Signal or Wickr or hiring full-time cybersecurity experts to advise their campaigns.
Democrat Mike Levin, who is running to replace retiring Republican Rep. Darrell Issa in the competitive California 49th District, said his campaign takes the Russian “threat very seriously.”
“We have a full-time cybersecurity professional on our team,” Levin said in an email. “Our campaign has implemented the most effective security protocols available.”
Levin added that his campaign is “keeping a close eye on social media,” in case Russian bots attempt to attack his campaign by spreading false information on platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. Twitter alone informed 1.4 million users that they saw Russian propaganda during the 2016 election and removed more than 50,000 accounts from the site.
The spread of misinformation by Russian bots or other state actors is something that concerns Mark Nickolas, campaign manager for Democrat Amy McGrath in Kentucky. McGrath pulled off a primary upset against establishment favorite Lexington Mayor Jim Gray. She’s running to unseat Republican incumbent Rep. Andy Barr in Trump country. If Democrats are going to flip control of the House it’s races like McGrath’s — a seat that leans Republican by nine percentage points rated a toss-up just three months out — that they need to win.
“If the Russians want to get involved in our election again, one would think what they want to avoid is a House takeover by the Democrats or a senate takeover because of just the potential of real meaningful hearings that lay out what they’re doing,” said Nickolas. So I would think that the top House candidates in particular are going to be a focus.”
But Nickolas said cyberattacks isn’t what “scares” him the most, it’s misinformation campaigns.
“The stuff that scares me isn’t this because I’m not sure what you’re going to find if you hack us. What, you’ll get our polling? Going to get scripts to a shoot?” Nickolas said. “The things that scare me are the fake news part of it. The ability to get on social media with fake accounts and put out false information and echo it through multiple fake accounts.”
Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., echoed similar sentiments a few months earlier, telling the Examiner that America is “more vulnerable” now.
“Russians are undergoing a lessons-learned campaign to come at us again,” Swalwell, who sits on the House Intelligence Committee said. “But other countries have similar capabilities as well as nonstate action who would would see our doing nothing as emboldening.”
